Ventura police officer aims to combat human trafficking in Asia

Ruggiero, family head to Asia to help with issue

Ventura police Cpl. David Ruggiero, who did not want his face shown for safety reasons, will go to Southeast Asia on a fellowship to study human trafficking.

Ventura County Star

Ventura police Cpl. David Ruggiero, who did not want his face shown for safety reasons, will go to Southeast Asia on a fellowship to study human trafficking.

Ventura County Star

Ventura police Cpl. David Ruggiero’s 6-year-old daughter is old enough to understand the family is moving far away. She’s also been warned about the mosquitoes and humidity, even though she probably hasn’t been exposed much to either.

What she’s too young to understand is her role in the family’s move.

“What would you do if you knew your daughter was being forced into slavery?” the pastor at Ruggerio’s Simi Valley church asked during a sermon.

Ruggerio’s daughters popped into his mind.

“I’d do anything,” he thought.

That anything will soon involve moving with his wife, two daughters and son to Southeast Asia.

Ruggiero was several years into his career with the Ventura Police Department when he fully began to understand how many people are forcibly sold for labor and services. Known as human trafficking, it’s often referred to as slavery.

Ruggiero began seeing signs of trafficking in Ventura. He began studying the issue — reading, taking classes, getting to know groups that work with victims.

In June, Ruggiero, 32, will take an unpaid leave of absence from the Police Department to work with the International Justice Mission, a Christian nonprofit that tries to rescue victims of trafficking and prosecute those who enslave them. He received an 11-month fellowship from the nonprofit to help with the cause.

“Not any one of us can fix the problem but we can do what we can,” Ruggiero said. “God’s put me in a position to do more.”

For security reasons, Ruggiero declined to disclose where in Southeast Asia his family will go. He’s not entirely clear what his work will be, but he expects he will help officials lock away perpetrators.

Last year, state Attorney General Kamala Harris formed an anti-trafficking work group to assess the problem. The group looked at the effects of social media and the Internet on recruiting victims, trafficking methods and strategies that authorities and the community could use to tackle the problem and help victims.

Those who work on the issue largely agree the problem is much bigger than the numbers show.

“The reality is: Human trafficking is massive. It’s a huge problem and often undercounted because it’s so invisible,” said Raquel Aldana, a law professor at the University of Pacific’s McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento. The university was part of the attorney general’s work group.

“Unless you have an educated police force that has the sensibilities, they may not be able to recognize the crime when they see it,” said Aldana, a former human rights lawyer.

Human trafficking has received sporadic attention in Ventura County, and the District Attorney’s Office is not prosecuting any human trafficking cases.

“We accept that it’s happening, but no cases have been brought to us for consideration of filing,” Chief Deputy District Attorney Michael Frawley said. “I don’t think one has ever been brought to us.”

Getting a trafficking case prosecuted can be extremely difficult, said Fresno police Sgt. Curtis Chastain, who supervises the department’s coalition against human trafficking. Located in a large agricultural area, the city often grapples with people forced to work in the fields.

Putting together a case against traffickers, which calls for cooperation from victims, is difficult. But Fresno police have financial and other support because they belong to the Fresno Coalition Against Human Trafficking, one of nine task forces established between 2004 and 2010.

“No one agency can be the solution to it, and that’s the reality,” Chastain said. “Trafficking is everywhere in life.”

He said education and training have played crucial roles in the issue, with law enforcement shouldering the primary responsibility.

Local officials think the crackdown on trafficking in Los Angeles is forcing the problem into Ventura County.

Last month, Ruggiero presented an update on massage parlors to the Ventura City Council. There are 65 massage licenses in the city. While most are legitimate, a few are fronts for prostitution rings, he said.

The women in the illegitimate operations often are trafficking victims, Ruggiero said.

Immigrants are easy targets because of language barriers or immigration status, but they aren’t the only ones who get caught up in trafficking. Often, average teenagers do, Ruggiero said.

Shannon Sergey is president of Forever Found, a Simi Valley nonprofit that works to educate people on trafficking and how to spot it as well as help women who get caught up in it.

Sergey said she was inspired by Ruggiero’s “heart for the kids” when she met him last year.

“When you see a child rescued, it’s the most inspiring thing in the world,” Sergey said. “He’ll see it firsthand, and he’ll bring that back to the force and inspire everyone else.”

Ruggiero wasn’t the only one touched by the sermons on human trafficking he heard at Cornerstone Community Church. His wife also felt compelled to do something.

“I never would have considered it unless she had been supportive from the beginning,” Ruggiero said.

When Ruggiero received the fellowship, he approached the Police Department. Chief Ken Corney gave his support and granted a leave of absence. At a recent City Council meeting, Corney praised Ruggiero for his willingness to “actually look at the supply end.”

Ruggiero will not be paid for his work abroad. He’s raising money to cover the costs for the year, which he estimates will be about $58,000.

The Ruggieros haven’t raised close to that, and they don’t know whether they will sell or rent their Thousand Oaks house.

God calls on people to rescue the oppressed and help the poor, Ruggiero said.

“There’s modern-day slavery going on,” he said. “We’re a wealthy church in America. We’re equipped to do something, so why aren’t (we)?”

If all goes as planned, Ruggiero will return to the Police Department in May 2014.

“I hope I apply the knowledge I get in some capacity here,” Ruggiero said. “That’s what I would hope for.”

Donations for Ruggiero’s trip can be sent by check to International Justice Mission, P.O. Box 1132, Thousand Oaks, CA 91358. All donations are tax-deductible.